By Mark Snyder
Daily Sports Writer
MILWAUKEE - All season long, the Michigan hockey team was special.
Special because it set a school record for victories in a season.
Special because it dominated the CCHA regular season, winning the title by six points.
And special because it was outstanding when the sides weren't even.
Unfortunately for Michigan, last night was not as special.
Throughout the season, the Wolverines relied on their power play and penalty kill - special teams - to bail them out of games.
Michigan, which led the nation in power-play success, converted on 31 percent of its chances before last night, when it was shut out in yesterday's game. It was the first time in two months the Wolverines have not scored a power-play goal.
When Miami (Ohio) came to Ann Arbor on Jan. 25, Michigan was held scoreless on the power play, but that game ended in a 3-0 Wolverine victory.
Last night's 3-2 defeat was directly attributable to the power play, or lack thereof, according to Michigan defenseman Blake Sloan.
"Our power play has been a force all season long," he said. "We needed to do a couple of things on our power play (last night) to capitalize."
Credit should be given to Boston University for attacking the Michigan players and holding Michigan down on the power play, according to Boston coach Jack Parker.
"The biggest key (to the game) is how we killed penalties," Parker said.
Michigan coach Red Berenson attributed more of the problem to Michigan's mistakes, rather than Boston's success.
"(They had) pretty good penalty killing," Berenson said. "But our power play can (usually) find a way to score."
All season long, that has been the standard and not the exception for Michigan.
A prime example is Michigan forward Jason Botterill, who leads the nation in power-play goals with 20 but was unable to convert against the Terriers.
The best opportunity for the Wolverines to take advantage of the extra man came at 16:43 of the first period when Michigan forward Dale Rominski was checked by Boston captain Billy Pierce.
Pierce received a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind, and was escorted from the ice as the officials added a game misconduct.
While Pierce's evening was over, Michigan's troubles were just beginning as it immediately squandered the power play.
"If we scored it could have been a big factor in the game," Berenson said.
Entering the second period, Michigan had a 1-0 lead. By 20 minutes later, that margin had vanished.
"We've been preaching all year to separate ourselves in the second period," Sloan said. "And we didn't do that."
Besides having problems capitalizing on their power plays, the Wolverines also had trouble with penalty killing.
It was 14 minutes into the second when Michigan drew its first penalty and, by that point, Boston had taken the lead on two even-strength goals.
Michigan's Bobby Hayes was sent to the penalty box for hooking and Michigan had its first chance to return the Terriers' penalty-killing favor.
Things didn't fall into line as they had the rest of the season for Michigan, however. Boston forward Tommi Degerman, who had scored only five times this season, beat Marty Turco with 20 seconds to go in the penalty on a wraparound pass from Hobey Baker finalist Chris Drury.
The Wolverines, who entered the game with an 88-percent success rate on the penalty kill, had allowed the goal that put them down two with 23 minutes to play.
Boston, which had only two power plays on the night, was successful on one - the only one necessary.
WARREN ZINN/Daily
Boston University's Chris Drury knocked Brendan Morrison and Michigan off the college hockey throne last night in the NCAA semifinals, 3-2. The teams reversed roles from last season, when Michigan knocked then-defending champion Boston U. out of the tournament, also in the semifinal round.